Energy: Here's what Hochul proposes in her budget
Shown is the Block Island Wind Farm on Dec. 7, 2023. Credit: Newsday/Steve Pfost
The state budget Gov. Kathy Hochul unveiled Tuesday proposes spending $1 billion on programs aimed at cutting carbon emissions across the state.
Among the initiatives: building thermal-energy networks at SUNY campuses, expanding "green transportation," and retrofitting state buildings with clean-energy alternatives, according to a budget summary that didn’t specify amounts for each initiative.
Hochul’s budget also proposes $300 million to fund a program to build-out needed power infrastructure to buildings suitable for advanced manufacturing. The plan, called Promote Opportunity with Electric Readiness for Underdeveloped Properties, proposes expediting electric transmission and infrastructure for allocated sites statewide to "supercharge our ability to connect New Yorkers with the advanced manufacturing jobs of the future," Hochul’s office said. A spokesman didn’t respond to say whether any of those sites are on Long Island.
The budget also earmarks an unspecified amount for "retrofitting homes and incentivizing the installation of heat pumps" across the state. A spokeswoman for the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, which administers the programs, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The budget makes scant mention of offshore wind initiatives, which the state expects to be the primary power supplier over the coming decade. On Monday, the Trump administration announced an executive order that would halt new onshore and offshore wind leases and temporarily halt new permits needed to site the projects in federal waters or lands.
NYSERDA spokeswoman Deanna Cohen said the agency will "carefully review" the federal actions, but said it was "too soon in the process to determine what impact, if any, federal actions might have New York reaching its ambitious renewable energy targets."
Mark Harrington, a Newsday reporter since 1999, covers energy, wineries, Indian affairs and fisheries.
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